Canonical has released a new Linux kernel live patch for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) to fix a major vulnerability .
The new Linux kernel live patch is here to address a buffer overflow (CVE-2019-14835) discovered by security researcher Peter Pi in the Linux kernel's virtio network backend (vhost_net) implementation that can lead to DoS attacks.
A hacker may be able to use this to cause a denial of service (host OS crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code on the host OS.
Users are urged to update their installations
If you are using the Canonical LivePatch service on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) or Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), it is recommended that you install the kernel live patch on the kernel as soon as possible to mitigate the aforementioned security vulnerability.
The kernel live patch is only available for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64-bit systems using the Linux 4.15 kernel, as well as Ubuntu 16.04 LTS systems using the Linux 4.4 kernel. In addition, it is also available for Ubuntu 14.04 ESM (Extended Security Maintenance) users using the Linux 4.4 HWE (Hardware Enablement) kernel.
However, Canonical noted that if you are using kernels older than 4.15.0-50 on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or Ubuntu 16.04 LTS systems as well as 4.4.0-148 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or Ubuntu 14.04 ESM systems, you will not receive the latest security updates.
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